Elevator safety appliance.



Ratented July 30, |90I.

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ELEvAnn SAFETY APPuAncE.

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UNTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

VILLIAM R. WEEKS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ELEVATOR SAFETY APPLIANCE,s

SEECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 679,581, dated July 30, 1901.

Application tiled January 30, 1901. Serial No.V 45,270. (No model.)

To all whom zit may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM R. WEEKS, a citizen of the United States, residing at 98 Hamilton Place, New York, county of New York, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Elevator Safety Appliances, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

The object of the present invention is to secure the eective operation in elevators of modern construction of the safety appliances which grip the guide-strips at the side of the elevator-shaft. In such modern elevators metal T-bars are used for the guide-posts and the central rib for the guide-strip; and my present invention consists in the combination `with such central rib of strips of wood or equivalent yielding material attached to its opposite sides to furnish a compressible surface for the grip of the safety appliances. The wooden guide-strips which were once exclusively used are commonly made about two inches square and attached by screws to the posts and made of hard wood, like maple. The safety appliances to prevent the fall of an elevator-car were rst designed to iit upon and grasp such square wooden guide-strips, and the clamps of such safety appliances were therefore constructed to operate about two inches apart and made of suitable strength to press into the yielding surface of the wood. Such clamps are not adapted to fit the thin rib upon a rolled T-bar and have not, therefore, strength to clamp with the necessary firmness a smooth metal surface, where the friction and penetrability is so Very much less than in the case of wood. The wooden guide-strips are formed with a row of screwholes at the middle and made of hard wood, like maple, about two inches square, and require to be thoroughly seasoned before they were put into use. At the present time elevator manufacturers who use such guidestrips commonly put into stock daily a certain amount of such wood to be kept for a year before it is used, and the present stock of such guide-strips among the various elevator manufacturers is worth many thousands of dollars.

The change in building construction which led to the use of metal instead of wood for elevator guide-posts offered the advantage of occupying less room in the shaft, as metal of the same strength is smaller than wood in cross-section. To meet this requirement, builders whose safety appliances were fitted to a square wooden strip have employed a channel-iron for the posts and filled the interior of the channel with wood, to which the wooden guide-strips could be attached by screws; but to save the greatest amount of space it is now becoming common to use rolled T-bars, which combine the elevator posts and guide in one piece, and thus occupy a minimum of space.

The use of a channel-iron post enables builders whose safety appliances were adapted to a guide-strip two inches in thickness to use such patterns without change, while the employment of a T-bar for theguide rendered such pattern useless. The center rib in rolled T-bars requires planing smoothly upon both sides to form the guide-strip and is so thin that the clamps of the safety appliances heretofore used will not tit and grip it, and new patterns for the safety appliances are required with such T-bars.

Where builders whose safety appliances are fitted to a wooden guide-strip are required to estimate upon an elevator in which T-bar guide-strips are specified, the builder must add nearly one hundred dollars to his estimate to provide for new patterns of his safety appliances to grip such a thin rib. Such builders are thereby prevented from competing with those who have the new patterns adapted to grip the thin rib of a metal T-bar.

My invention contemplates the slitting of the wooden guide-strips which are now in stock with various elevator builders and securing the divided parts at opposite sides of the rib upon a metal T-bar. By this construction I enable such builders to employ metal T-bar posts when specified and to advantageously use the seasoned wooden strips of which they have a large stock on hand. They are thus able to utilize the patterns heretofore made for the safety appliances, and the safety appliances also operate with far more certainty and efficiency when oper- IOO ating upon a wooden or yielding surface than upon the smooth metal surface furnished by the T-bar itself.

Several advantages result from the facing of the rib upon the T-bar with wood or other compressible materials at its opposite sides in addition to those already named.

First. The application of the wood avoids ythejoint's serves to hold the guide-strip in line throughout its entire length.

By making the ends of the wooden strips break joints with theends of the T-bars the joints of the strips are tirmlysupported upon solid metal, and they are entirely prevented from displacement.

The safety appliances which are operated with effectiveness upon a wooden guide-strip can by my invention be used with equal security by applying to the T-bar a facing of wood or other compressible material, lwhile all the advantage of the metal T-bar is secured in occupying the minimum of space in the elevator-shaft, thus enabling such builders Vto utilize their stock on hand both of guide-strips and of patterns for the safety appliances.

Regal-ded broadly, the invention consists in applying a layer of compressible material at the opposite sides of a rib upon a metal guide-post, to receive the pressure of the clamping jaw or jaws connected with the safety device. Any suitable material, as leather or vulcanized fiber, may be used in the place of wood, if preferred, and whatever material be used the strips of material are arranged so that their ends break Ajoints with the ends of the ribs upon which they are fastened,whereby the joints of such strips are held from displacement by the interior rib.

Where 'a reproof construction is specified, fireproofed wood maybe used for the facingstrips, which renders the entire guide post and strip incombustible.

In the annexed drawings, Figure 1 is a transverse section of a post having wooden strips with their rear edges beveled. Fig. 2 isa perspective View of a section of such post. Fig'. 3 is a perspective view of a square wooden strip, with lines showing the required division of the strip to lit upon a T-bar. Fig. 4 is a cross-sectiony of a post with the wooden strips of such width as to expose the base of the cential rib, combined with a plan of the shoe and clamping-jaw. Fig. 5 is a crosssection of a postwith the wooden strips f1tted close to the flanges of the T-bar. Fig. 6 is an elevation showing the car and the clamping-jaws applied to the guide-strips, and Fig. 7 is a side elevation of the post and clamping-jaw. Fig. 8 is a front view, and Fig. 9 a side view, of a guide-post containing my invention and exhibiting the Wooden facing arranged to break joints with the T-bars. ct designates the ilanges of a rolled T-bar, and b the central rib.

h designates bolt-holes in the flanges, and d bolts securing the same to the floor-beamsf. (Shown in Fig.,l.)

The facing-strips e are shown applied to the opposite sides of the rib b and secured thereto by screws or rivets. In Fig. l a hole c is shown extended through the rib b and a wood-screw g is shown inserted through the hole and its thread fastened in one of the strips, thus clamping both strips together and to therrib. Such fastening is also shown in Fig. 2, while Fig. 4 shows one of the strips secured to the rib b by a machine-screw i, tapped into the rib. The opposite strip would be secured by similar means where machinescrews were employed. In Fig. 5 a rivetj is shown extended through both of the strips and through a hole inthe rib and headed Yover upon the outsides of the strips upon washers sunk in their surface. Any other suitable means may be used to fasten the strips upon the rib.

Figs. 8 and 9 show the joints o of the T- bars alternated with the joints w of the facingstrips e, so that the strips cover and reinforce the joints of the metallic bars. The breaking of the joints holds the entire guide-strip in line.

To enable the clamping-jaws of the safety device to clear the flanges of the T-bar, it has been common to make the rib wider than the bearing of the jaws and to plane only a correspondingpart of such rib, and the jaws then move at a suihcient distance from` the flanges d to clear the heads of the bolts.

In applying strips of wood to a T-bar the j edges of the wood adjacent to the flanges of the bar may be beveled toward the central rib, as shown in Fig. l, to clear the bolt-fastenings of the llanges, or the wood may be made sufficiently narrow to leave the base of the rib fully uncovered, as shown in Fig. 4, to leave room for the bolt-heads upon the flanges.

Where great economy of space is required in the elevator-shaft, the rib on the T-bar may be made, as shown in Fig. 5, of the same width as the clam ping-jaws and the bolts be countersunk or the bolting-ilanges extended far enough from the rib to bring the bolts outside the path of s uch jaws.

I have illustrated a clamping mechanism in Figs. 6 and 7; but such device is immaterial, as my invention is intended to operate with any clamping-jaws constructed to lit a wooden guide-strip and having therefore sufficient space to admit the construction of guide-'posts which I have claimed. In Fig. 6 I have shown only the frame of the elevator in which the car would be carried, 7s showing the platform at the bottom, Zthe cross-beams IIO at the top, and m the side bars or rods connecting the two.

Hoisting-cables 'a are shown as well as counterbalance-cables o, the former being connected'to one arm of a lever p and the other to the opposite arm, so that whenever the hoisting-cable breaks the strain of the connterbalanced rope may throw one end of the leverp against an arm q to actuate the clamping-jaws. The clamping-jaw r (shown in Fig. 7) is pivoted upon the shoe s below the platform 7a and is shown connected with the arm q by the rod t, which jams it against the surface of the guide-strip when the arm q is operated. When such clamping-jaw is pressed against the guide-strip, the mere frictional resistance is not sufficient to arrest the car; but where the surface is of compressible material, like wood or leather, the jaw speedily penetrates the substance of the guide-strip and cannot advance thereafter without grinding off from the strip a considerable layer of its surface, which adds to its efficiency.

vWhere a jaw or cam-shaped clamp is pressed against a smooth metal surface, it cannot produce as much frictional resistance as is produced by contact with wood,and it cannot penetrate the surface so, deeply as in the case of wood, and thelayer which has to be scraped off by the jaw or cam is of so triiiing and superhcial a character that its resistance does not compare with that afforded by the wood, and the metallic guide-strip does not, therefore, furnish anything like the same security against the fall of the car.

It will be observed by reference to Figs. 4 and 7 that the part o* forms a jaw movable upon one side of the shoe s, while a iiange formed upon the shoe bears upon the opposite side of the guide-strip to form an opposing jaw or abutment; but such details of construction are immaterial and any suitable clamping or grasping jaws may be used, as the design of my invention is to substitute the wooden-faced guide-strip for the plain metallic guide-strip, to be used with any suitable clamps.

The invention is fully adapted to utilize the dried wood already prepared for guidestrips, a section of which is shown in Fig. 8, as such strips may be readily slitted upon the dotted lines a, (shown in Fig. 3,) thereby removing a portion of the wood equal to the thickness of the metallic rib b and adapting the two lateral pieces to fit the opposite sides of the rib, and thus form a guide-strip having the thickness of the original wooden bar. Such utilization of the previously-prepared guide-strips adapts my improved construction for operation with the identical clamps and patterns of safety appliances which have been designed and used with such wooden strips and avoids the necessity of making new patterns to be used where metallic T- bars are used to form the guide-post.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what is claimed herein is* l. In an elevator, the combination, with the car and a safety appliance having clamping-jaws adapted to grip the guide-strips, of guide-posts formed each with a central metallic rib and havinga yielding facing of suitable\compressible material attached to the opposite faces of such rib to receive the pressure of the opposite clamping-jaws and operating to secure the effective operation of such Jaws.

2. In an elevator, the combination, with the car and a safety appliance having clamping-jaws adapted to grip the guide-strips, of guide-posts formed each with a central metallic rib and havinga yielding facing of wood attached to the opposite faces of such rib to secure the effective operation of the clampingjaws.

3. In an elevator', the combination, with the car and a safety appliance having clamping-jaws adapted to grip the guide-strips, of guide-posts formed each of a wrought T-bar with its central rib projected into the elevator-shaft and such rib faced upon its opposite sides with suitable compressible material to secure the effective operation of the clamping-jaws.

4. In an elevator, the combination, with the car and a safety appliance having clamping-jaws adapted to grip the guide-strips, of guide-posts formed each of a wrought T-bar with its central rib projected into the elevator-shaft and such rib faced upon its opposite sides with wooden strips, to secure the eifective operation of the clamping-jaws.

5. In an elevator, the combination, with the car and a safety appliance having clamping-jaws adapted to grip the guide-strips, of a guide post or posts, at one or both sides of the elevator-shaft, formed with a rolled metallic T-bar having holes extended through the thickness of its central rib, and the guidestrips formed of wood strips applied to the opposite sides of such ribs and secured to the same by fastenings extended through the said holes, substantially as herein set forth.

6. In an elevator, the combination, with the car and a safety appliance having clamping-jaws adapted to grip the guide-strips, of guide-posts at opposite sides of the elevatorhoistway comprising each a series of rolled T-bars secured together with their ends abutting in the elevator-shaft, and the central rib of such T-bars projected into the shaft, and facing-strips of wood secured to the opposite sides of such rib to form a guide-strip, with the ends of such facing-strips arranged to break joints with the ends of the T-bars, as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony -Whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM R. WEEKS.

Witnesses:

L. LEE, THOMAS S. CRANE.

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